Bad property management in Logan

I’ve had a tenant that stopped paying and the tribunal gave them quite some time to move, so I ended up out of pocket just over $2k.

This occurred in late April, which is also when I asked my property manager what I can do in regards to getting this owed money back.

I got no response to my email, but when I called them early May, they said that they would hand it over to a debt collection agency, that it would not cost me any money and that this would be the best cause of action.


I had heard nothing back, so early this month (I probably let it slide a bit too long) I sent a couple of emails to the property managers.

Now I find out that they only went to QCAT to get possession, but not for a warrant of compensation. I raised this with my PM and he said that you can only ask for one or the other, is this true? Even if it is, they should still have tried to get the warrant of compensation in my opinion.


Not only did they not try and get compensation, I found out that they only handed the details over to debt collection agency this month, so there were at least 65 days of inaction on their part.

To make things worse, when I talked to the debt collectors, they told me that there is a six month time limit on trying to get money back and that they can’t really do much without a warrant for compensation.


Does anyone have any bright ideas of what I should do now, other than pushing the PM to go to get the warrant of compensation?

Do I have any recourse to try and get the money off the PM?

 

did you get bond recovery? did you have insurance? has a claim been made? is the debt for rent or damage?

 

I'm not sure if it's the done thing on Propertychat but are you willing to say who your current managing agency is?

 

I got the bond, but due to the tribunal allowing the tenants to stay in it for quite a while after they stopped paying, they racked up a bit of rent. There is some cleaning fees and things like that as well though.
I didn't have landlord insurance unfortunately, only building.

Sure, it's Raine and Horne Shailer Park.
They've now "kindly" offered to release me from the contract that I signed with them without giving 90 days notice, but I think I'll have to stay with them until this matter is resolved. If my claim against the tenant expires, I'll see if I can recover it from the PM instead, due to them not doing their job.

 

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That's such a cop out isn't it? They potentially screw you over and can't be stuffed fixing it or taking responsibility so they just wipe their hands of you.. I'm sure I read of another PM agency in brissy doing the same thing on SS a few months back.

 

Dear Spludgey, have sent you the address of Raine and Horne Director, could I suggest you send him a letter? Tell him what happened and What Compo you want. Don't let them walk away!

 

Thanks mate, I saw it and was going to respond later. Did you actually do this and if so, did you get a satisfactory result?

 

sorry to hear. we had some bad tenants long story which took sometime to sort. we did have landlord insurance have never gone without it in 15yrs. 3 trips to the tribunal bottom line we got the bond recovered and insurance for most of the rest. the insurance will chase the tenants if they have their details we were told.
we were happy to move on albeit after returning the property to an acceptable state. we understand tenants can have financial difficulties but the some...well best left unsaid.

 

Red rocket reality - Sumayya her name is..
Absolute gun agent..

 

I've heard of Sumayya a few times in a good light. I personally have used GoGecko in Marsden and so far so good. However I haven't had a bad scenario to test them out (hope I never do).

 

I'm going through the same thing...I'm down rent since March! We now have an eviction order from the court. Hopefully, I can claim from landlore insurance soon!
All taken care of by Sumayya, she's a gun as Greyghost said. Also, this gives me a chance to add a couple more bedrooms downstairs so I can rent it out for more.

Fingers crossed!

Good luck spludgey, hope it works out for you.

 

I must add it was Beanie_girl who referred me to Sumayya..

 

What the hell? I was just given notice by my PM to end the management agreement! This after he implied that it was my fault for not having landlord insurance and that he would sign me up for landlord insurance and me telling him not to.

Just as a note, I do have landlord insurance now, but it’s not really material. He should have gone through the motions and tried to claim my money back.

 

Dear Spludgey,
I don't know the Qld rules on this one, but do get in touch with QCAT and ask them for sure, whether you can ask only for warrant of possession or money owed. It doesn't sound right to me? As for Raine and Horne agency ask QCAT about the code of conduct for lisenced agents, get a copy of it and start drafting yourself a formal complaint. Also carefully read through the management agency agreement. If you can see anywhere they they have not adhered to Agents code of conduct, write a letter of complaint to QCAT, They will be glad to know this. Let me see.. not telling you about the arrears.. representing you without letting you know... etc etc. I am sorry they are such XXXXX !!
I hope this helps

 

Thanks Seaford, I'll see what responses I'll get from people here and will definitely take some sort of action.

I've had a look at it, this is the only thing that I could find in relation to insurance.
I did (and do) have building insurance, which I'm 99% sure, did come with public liability cover.



It doesn't seem to say anywhere in the agreement that they have a right to terminate.

 

Dear Spludgey,
Get out your magnifying glass and keep looking, If you found that stuff in 20 minutes, you should find a sXXX load more, keep up the good work, Get in touch with QCAT because you need to make sure you are barking up the right tree! ( I'm no solicitor)
I hope this helps!

 

With any agreement where there is 2 parties, both would have a right to terminate, if it is 90 days for you, then it is likely 90 for them.

It would be hard to enforce though, or a waste of effort maybe better way of putting it.

 

I've recently moved from GoGecko Marsden and am very happy that I did.

Communication was always horrendous with my phone calls and emails never returned, I always had to chase them up and finally CC'ing the Principle into my correspondence to get any action at all.

Their property maintainance guy was below par with damage even being done to my property while he was trying to fix something (very badly too might I add - I have since paid again to get the job done properly as it was left in a dangerous state).

The damage caused to the property was reported by the tenants but never to me and never identified during the inspections.

I didn't realise how badly things were being managed until I moved property managers.

Use them at your own peril is my advice, they are cheap for a reason.

 

Just like the last post, don't go anywhere near Harper Real Estate (Upper Coomera) or Paul Flynn for property management unless you like these qualities in a manager: lack of communication (calls returned with txt messages only, after days of following up), late bill payments, lack of ownership, always unavailable to you unless you are a high profile client, costly mistakes on rental leases, poorly managed property maintenance - eg: major plumbing leaks, not 1, but 2 dumped cars on my lawn, grass waist high in winter, none of which was identified until I changed to a new PM.

They also have low fees, but after trying them, you will soon find out why. I'm now $$$Thousands out of pocket because of lack of communication.

I'm trying Atlantic Real Estate now, and so far so good, but it's early days. At least they have a 'Team' that answers the phone and an office. Lets see how it goes.

 

Just an update on Atlantic Real Estate. STAY AWAY FROM THEM !!! Jospehine seemed friendly in the beginning until I signed up when she passed me over to her team and never had any time for me herself. She would even hang up while I was still talking on brief conversations and not call back. Her team is Ok, but my property has been vacant for 5 weeks and now I'm switching again. I have now found out that they haven't carried out any repairs or even maintained the lawns. Perhaps this is the reason for the continued vacancy???
They wouldn't even allow me to be released from the contract when she said I would be able to in the beginning. Full of lies, these people...
Stay away from Atlantic Real Estate, and they have no local presence in Logan anyway, even though they used to have a local person, or so they said...